Commercial Real Estate

MCALLISTER: Jake talked about rates having to go up in Salt Lake, and that’s exactly what’s happened in Provo and Orem. The large block space has filled up, and it’s created a disparity with rates at Thanksgiving Point. There’s a 40 percent increase in rates between Provo and Orem and Thanksgiving Point. But it’s only after they fill up all of the spaces in Provo and Orem that those rates will increase. Otherwise, with that kind of disparity, the companies are going to gravitate towards backfilling the space.

SHIN: We’re working on a project in the Provo/Orem area, Midtown Village, and we’re going to launch that today. It’s a mixed-use development with the potential to be 1.4 million square feet of office. We’re gaining a lot of attention from national and local buyers. That’s going to greatly really improve that Orem area.

BURTON: In talking about Provo/Orem it’s important to note that four or five months ago, there were five blocks of space over 20,000 square feet in that submarket that no longer exist today. If you were to go to the Provo Riverbottoms or the mouth of the canyon, that submarket area, and try to find 20,000 square feet contiguous, it doesn’t exist anymore.

Now, it was a great price. Those rates were at $16 a square foot across the board with those companies that were leasing space in Riverwoods and Canyon River Corporate Center, et cetera. But all of those spaces are gone. They’ve evaporated. And the companies that we’re representing now looking for headquarters—there’s just no product.